I would love to say 'Doesn't time fly when you are having fun?' but of course for most of us this has been a rollercoaster of emotions with fear, sadness, frustration and anxiety being the top contenders. That said, we have seen some great examples of families and communities pulling together (apart) and of making the very best of a very bad situation. We are proud to be part of the Greenfield family and can only applaud the amazing work you are doing with your children, whether it is online, on paper, in the garden or in the kitchen...all the amazing experiences you are having together (academic or otherwise) will help to build our future adults and make them more resilient and independent. 

So we have a half term holiday for staff and pupils (and you!) but we will not be disappearing completely. Teachers will not be posting work tasks this week but keep an eye on Twitter for more 'Where am I?' quizzes and also a 'Who am I?' quiz each day - Guess the staff member from the clues I give. Julie and I will still be available for any questions you may have and you can contact us on Twitter or email or on the school mobile number. Please understand however that we are unlikely to respond to messages sent at night (after 7pm) until the following day. I hope you will understand this. 

We have a 7 week half term (starting 01/06/20) to take us up to the summer holidays. I hope with all my heart that we will be back in school within that time, but of course we do not know anything yet about what will happen in Wales with regard to school opening. We have plans in place for all eventualities and we will share them with you as soon as we know what is what! In the meantime Pat, Marie, Shirley and Kelly along with Jonny are doing an amazing job of deep cleaning all areas of the school. Everything that can be cleaned has been, from book covers to pencils, floors to ceilings. Anything that can't be cleaned has been disposed of. We had a large amount of clothing left in school. This has all now been placed outside the school building in the covered area by Mrs Smith's office. We will not be able to allow it back into the building and are asking for you to collect the kit and uniform as soon as you can please. The gates will not be opened during the holidays but will be from June 1st. 

I hope you have a happy and healthy Bank Holiday weekend!
Keep well and stay safe.

Nice to hear from so many of you this week and I even got to see some pupils and parents when I came into the village on Tuesday and Thursday! (From a safe distance)
We have had lots of people sending us videos for SeeSaw and Flipgrid and some lovely work submitted into google classrooms. We have also had lots of people say that the children are finding it difficult to settle to work. Don't panic! We understand! Many of our staff are also trying to get their children to do school work whilst also preparing and assessing the work for your children. We are all just taking it one day at a time and doing what is right for our children and family. That is all we can ask of you so please, be kind to yourselves and don't compare or feel guilty. We are here to help you access the learning as best we can. Hopefully those of you who have struggled with getting suitable devices have had your email by now and have arranged a time to pick up your loan device. The local authority are coordinating the effort to get those without the internet some access. And if stocks allow we will try and help out those of you who are having to share devices between the family. 
Other ways we can help? Well I have had some requests to speak to children to encourage them to work. If this is what you need, just let me know and we can make some more phone calls. We can provide resources such as paper, pencils, scissors and exercise books. We can't provide reading books unfortunately as we would not be able to safely have them returned to school to be swapped however we have links to online reading libraries and have signed up for Headsprout details of which will be released to classes by the teachers. We also can't provide worksheets, logistically it is not possible for us to supply the whole school with paper copies of work and to get them out to you on a weekly basis. We do however suggest you access the free worksheets at Twinkl. They have a huge range of work that is age appropriate and you do not need to print them out. You can open a screen with the work on it and write the work into exercise books. We are setting tasks that are school work related, but also engagement tasks like telling classmates a joke. This will all keep the children feeling connected to each other and to us. Lots of you have had a go at keeping a diary or making a time capsule with your children or cooking or art projects of their own choosing. That all counts as learning too. We would like you to share any home activities like cooking or art with us either on Twitter or SeeSaw/Flipgrid as it is important that children see that what they are doing has value to us as well as them. 

Keep in touch if you can and keep doing the amazing job you are doing and try not to worry about what happens when school resumes because as soon as we can, we will be all about giving your children the education they need in the classroom. 

Mr Downes has worked very hard this week clearing the school iPads and Chromebooks so that they can be loaned out to those parents who do not have any devices at home suitable for pupils to work on. 
We have 45 pupils with no devices and a significant number with not enough devices at home. Please check your emails to see if you are in the first batch of devices to be loaned out. Please respond to your emails promptly to let me know if you will be accepting the loan of a device. We are prioritising the older pupils without devices first. We have let county know that we do not have enough devices to meet the demands of our pupils and we are hoping that they will be able to provide us with reconditioned devices from county stock. 

In the meantime, thank you for your patience as we try to get this problem addressed.

Thanks to those who have been able to respond to our questionnaire about internet access and how your child is able to access the tasks we are setting at home.

We will be forwarding the details of those without Broadband access to Flintshire County Council and they will use the Welsh Government funding to do whatever magic is needed to help you get on line.

We have been given permission to loan out our school devices to those children who are without devices at home. The demand for equipment far outstrips what we actually have so we will prioritise those families without devices first, then those working on a smartphone and then those families who do not have enough devices for all family members. 

We will be contacting those that fall into the first two categories early next week to see if you would like to loan a device and to arrange a time for you to collect it from school. We will inform county of our need for further devices in the hope they will be provided, on loan, from other sources at the council.

Thank you for your patience with this. It is tricky to get work done on line at the best of times, but very frustrating for all when more than one child is trying to access our tasks from the same phone! Hopefully with improved access the children will feel more like getting involved with their class tasks and will use the google classrooms and SeeSaw to chat with each other and the class teacher more regularly.

The Welsh Government have recognised the fact that not everybody has broadband internet access and enough devices for children to learn at home. 
Today we are sending out an email link to a google form which will establish for us which families have need for internet access and/or devices such as tablets and laptops. The form should take no more than five minutes to complete.
Can I ask you to respond to the email as a matter of urgency so that we can start the process of sorting the problem as best we can? 

Many thanks

Hopefully you will have all received the letter re payments to parents for those in receipt of FSM. The school will be open from 9-11am tomorrow if you need to access the online form or any help regarding Free School Meals. 
If your circumstances have changed and you feel you would like to apply for Free School Meals please contact the school tomorrow between 9-11 or email myself or Mrs Reece for advice on how to register. 

ghhead@hwbcymru.net
j.kinnair@ysgolmaesglas.co.uk